I Love This Place: Sedona, AZ

I had never been to the state of Arizona until a month ago and I have to say, I need to go back. There was so much we didn't get to see and do and honestly one day wasn't enough for this beautiful mountain town of Sedona. I had been told how beautiful it would be, but frankly words and my pictures don't do it justice. It was breathtaking.

Thanks to a 3 hour time difference from our home, our body clocks woke us up before dawn, so we were in our rental car and heading north by 5:30 am and were on our first hiking trail by 8:30 am. This was a good thing since temps were expected to get to 105 degrees that day. I didn't complain once about the heat - I soaked it up, hoping to store as much as I could to make up for and get me through the rest of our cold, Michigan spring.

As we drove into town we noticed there were no billboards and no tall buildings to impede to view. Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte were the first views of these magnificent red rocks to greet us. With the early morning light and an incredibly bright, blue sky as our background, the red sandstone layers of these formations stood out even more. We drove on north of town so we could hike to Devil's Bridge. It was a pretty good 7 mile round trip hike with a little bit of climbing at the end and it was so worth it. The panoramic views were amazing and the breeze was a bonus. I am normally not crazy about heights, but the "bridge" was pretty wide and pretty cool to walk around.

Later in the day we drove to Red Rock State Park and hiked the Oak Creek Canyon to enjoy a great view of Cathedral Rock - pretty spectacular. Large, flat, red rocks lined the creek and were considered the center of one of 4 energy vortexes in the area. We were told by two different locals that they never felt anything special when in these locations, but apparently others have. All I felt was relief when I was able to lay back on the hot rocks and cool off my feet in the cold creek!

Our car had warmed up to a toasty 115 degrees in the shady parking lot, but we headed back into town and walked around the quaint shops and galleries of Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. We enjoyed the beautiful cobblestone outdoor spaces, cooled off with drinks, and took home some lovely jewelry to remember our time here.